Remember Peter!

“The breaking of God is proportionate to the quality of ministry one will have later in life” said a book I am reading. From there the author showed how the Lord trained Peter with this in mind.

It was just what I needed! A reminder of what I’ve heard all through my Christian life and could quote with the best of them. Remember Peter!

Failures, less than stellar results, stumblings, shortcomings before a God you love, shortcomings before the people you love–these are the things that weigh you down. Why shouldn’t they? You caused them. At least I know that about myself. Then you add the fact that actions have consequences and you have your life. That is unmistakably our lives. A certain amount of brokenness surely attends to it.

Where does that leave us? That fortunately depends, with just a little cooperation, more on Christ than us. You and I must think before we decide what we will do, what exactly will Jesus do. Again I say, remember Peter.

“Despite the fact that Peter was repeatedly exposed and failed his Lord many times, he was the object of Jesus’ unending love” continued the article. You know the litany of Peter’s failures. Probably every one wondered why he was the leader of the Twelve. His failures came more often than his successes, at least for a long time. Probably the other eleven entertained thoughts on more than one occasion that he was a mess and they could do his role better. Of course no one can do better the role the Lord gave you–the spouse you are, the parent you are, the Christian worker you are-than you. Were it not so the Lord would have given the job to someone else. That doesn’t mean you or I are doing as well as we should or could, but it is still true. Enter Jesus.

He worked on Peter in ways Peter would have preferred to not be worked on, yet it took his life somewhere. The failures didn’t stop Christ either. You and I would have written Peter off after that third denial, if not before. Christ didn’t. It was Christ that met him when he was at his worst along the Sea of Galilee. He honestly had made a mess of everything! It was a life in disaster. There came Jesus.

Where am I today? Where are you? I’ll keep my failures to myself and give you the same courtesy. But where is Christ? He is here. No matter where we are today, He is not finished. That’s good to know. Peter had a future, a really good one, and so can you and I. Thanks to Jesus Christ!

Those authors said one more thing rather causally, but let’s seize it for ourselves: “In times of failure keep two words in mind: Remember Peter.”

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